My Shrink Says She Can Cure My Ptsd, With 4 More Sessions!?

[Dan]

So here's the back story. I've had PTSD for about 2 years now and have been trying to get the help I need as soon as I could. I was turned down at Campbell, finally got treatment at Eglin, ended up in a treatment center for 3 weeks, and now that I'm out I just want to get treatment off base because the docs here seem full of shit (see title).

The first doc I had during prolonged exposure and couples therapy kept giving me the "deer in the headlights" look, then changing the subject. I stopped seeing him after I realized he just didn't know how to help me. The doc I'm seeing now had me on prolonged exposure. Then I went into the treatment center and started CBT. I got through 8 of the 12 sessions and came home. It was agreed that I didn't need the live in therapy because I wasn't a threat to myself or others, most of the time anyway.

I'm trying to get an off base referral, and my doc called me today. She said that if I complete the last 4 sessions of CBT, and show substantial improvements, then I can go off post. She said that she has experience "curing" cases with PTSD, and they're much better off. I asked her if she meant that the treatment was effective. Everything I've read so far has basically told me that PTSD is a chronic condition, that can be treated effectively, but never cured. She then goes to tell me that she didn't know what I've been reading, but it's all wrong. She apparently has the miracle cure for PTSD.

What I'm getting out of our conversation is that if I show that I don't need treatment, then I can seek it elsewhere. Also, if I don't continue treatment until she's satisfied, she won't give me the referral. Military one source can't help because I have the diagnosis, and they don't help with chronic problems.

I've been turned down, mistreated, misdiagnosed, and am now being essentially forced to go through treatment that I don't want, just to get some treatment that will hopefully help. I'm about done with this. The world makes it hard enough to live with this, I never thought the people that are supposed to help would make it worse.

So I guess what I'm asking is if anyone has any advice on what I can do from here?

 

[Ned]

I am a Brit so totally ignorant of U.S. in-service treatment and VA urules. BUT - these are my unqualified thoughts:

It sounds a bit like bribery to me. If you go along with her for the last four sessions, she gets to tick all the boxes and write a nice summary for her bosses. And within her envelope, it's a success.
Now you know and I know it is not the end of the story. As you say - it is a bit longer term than that and you need to seek a good psych who can address it serviceably.
I would go along with the last four, try and stay up-beat, tolerant and responsive. Turn up and she can tick the register 'here'.
DON'T let her 'certify' that you're fixed, just let her tick her own particular 'positive results' boxes.
DO NOT let her make any statement that will affect your recognised disability rating.
DO bloody well make sure she understands she must give you a referral to an outside professional and that referral acknowledges that you are a work in progress.
Angry as I would be in your position, eat a bit more shit, mate, and smile. If it gets you that wider help. Just make damn sure the referral acknowledges the truth.

 

[Dan]

Thanks Ned. That was pretty much my thoughts on it as well. I'll deal with her for a couple more sessions if it means getting what I need. If she isn't willing to play ball on the referral after that, I think I'll lose my mind. I'm not going to let her put anything in writing that's going to affect my diagnosis or disability when I get out. I know I'm going to need treatment after I've done my time.

 

[JennyMac]

Just my unqualified opinion as well...either lodge a formal complaint if a process is available or nominate her for a Nobel prize.

Seriously, "all better" or "cured" is just semantics, an entirely subjective thing. CBT will not cure you it just gives you tools so you can carry on. Don't let her get away with writing in her little book that you are all cured....it will f*ck you over as well as the next poor sap that gets stuck with this miracle worker.

On another note I had a shrink similar to what you are talking about...I got pissed off at her for - well it doesn't matter now - and I told her I was too pissed to be in a room with her much less talk to her. By the next session I was cured. I hit her with the proverbial shit stick and she hit me with a magic wand. I lost my shit a year and a half later though. Turns out that shrink was wrong - go figure....sometimes there is no choice and there is no one else to help you and you have to keep looking for someone that can - but do not go gently into that goodnight.

Good luck.

 

[JarHed]

Sorry Dude

There's no 'cure' for PTSD. Therapy will help you manage the symtoms, but that's about it. Anyone who says that they have 'cured' someone is full of shit and I'd be glad to tell them myself.

Better to find someone willing to help you understand, manage and move forward. There just aren't any 'miracle' cures in life. You seem willing to work toward better health, keep at it and you'll find that you'll get better at it all.

Jar

 

[Dan]

I don't see how anything in the next 4 sessions is going to change my outlook on anything. I've already been given all the tools that the docs at the treatment center had in the CBT manual, so she isn't going to tell me anything new. I think she basically just wants to cover her ass in case I do go and blow up on someone. If that's what it takes to get the referral, then I'll play ball according to my rules. The moment she tries to put anything on my record saying that I'm anything other than in treatment, or have completed treatment, I'm going to talk to her boss, then thier boss if that's what it takes. Enough people in that office know my case enough to hopefully know that a couple more sessions aren't even going to begin to fix things.

 

[Sludge]

f*ck all that. I'd fire the crazy-assed pseudoprofessional and get a real Doc as soon as possible. Sounds to me like this cow has watched too many episodes of Oprah and that f*cking moron Dr. Phil.


Trust me when I say bad help is far worse than no help. Which, in my eyes, it what you are getting from this snake-oil salesman.


The absolute proof here is that there is absolutely no way to "cure" what is a deeply seated, permanent neurological and biochemical change in the brain. One can be trained to work around/with it, so to speak, but for this ignorant whore to even use the word cure, let alone claim to be able to do so, is frankly one of the worst professional and ethical atrocities I have yet to observe by a mental health specialist.

Sorry to sound like a vile anti-pseudoscience zealot or angry basement dwelling freak...oh wait...can't apologize for facts....;)

 

[JarHed]

Hell, if there actually was a cure, we'd all be signing up for it. Knowledge of and 'good' therapy for our condition can help to make it manageable and livable for us. That's the best we can truly hope for. I'm learning to live with that and not the false hope of any possible 'cure'.

 

[Sarg]

EOD, when she tells you you're cured, you can respond..."Great, I can go back to my job as a thermo-nuclear assembler and explosives and firearms trainer". Well...maybe not, or you'll wind up on "Janet's List" like me.

Sarg

 

[Jeremiah Steele]

I had basically the same happen to me at the VA. This doc said that if I went to about twelve sessions with her I would be back to normal. I am so far from what normal used to be that I wouldn't know it if I saw it. That was my second shrink the first one they tried to put me with was a hadji and I told them they had lost their minds if they thought I was locking myself in the room with habeb there. They didnt care for it too much and asked me to leave. What I dont get is why they would do that I understand the whole discrimination thing but come on. I cant even be in the same store with these people. I go to great lengths to avoid them. I think in order to be a real ptsd counselor you need to have ptsd. No book is going to teach you what this is like.

Jeremy

 

[JarHed]

I think in order to be a real ptsd counselor you need to have ptsd.

Hey Jeremy

Glad to see you've found our forums, sorry to hear you've got PTSD.

I'm going to have to disagree with your statement there. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with the VA but that's nothing new for us here. What you need is to find a counselor that has had training dealing with patients with PTSD and can help you along your path to getting a better handle on the things that will make your life better. I have a VA doctor, a psychologist that's terrific. She's not a vet, doesn't have PTSD but is a great doctor. She listens, then we talk about what I've said and then she gives me things to do to help lessen the symtoms of this condition. She is rare, she truly cares, but there are others out there in the VA system like her.Don't give up that fight.

Sometimes the hardest thing is allowing someone in that can help. Don't give up Bro, things can get better. Again, welcome to the forums.

JarHed

 

[Jimmy1]

Hey Jeremiah, welcome to the forum.

Maybe I can give you some insight.

I am not from your country, but the VA's are faced with the same issue right around the world and act the same.
What they are faced with are thousands upon thousands of veterans returning home. The majority of who knock upon the VA's door have legitimate problems, like yourself, other might be only suffering a bit of combat stress only, therefore a few sessions can send them on the straight and narrow, and of course there are the fakers looking for an easy way out.

As Jar said, grin and bare it and keep plodding along till you find the right shrink, then you will never look back. It took me a long time. Medication is the same, sometimes the first lot they give you will do nothing. You have to keep returning and research yourself until you find the ones to suit you. Mind you, medication takes a while to build up in your system too, sometimes 2-3 months. There is no easy fix to this beast my friend, but we are still here.

Would appreciate a bit of an intro buddy, it will give us an idea of where you have been and who you have served with.

Cheers

Jimmy